Notorious shoeshine boy killer Saul Betesh lost his bid for escorted temporary absences — his first attempt to secure a sniff of freedom since being sentenced to life in prison for the 1977 sex slaying of Emanuel Jaques.

Betesh, 68, appeared before a Parole Board of Canada panel in British Columbia’s Pacific Institution to ask for escorted temporary absences (ETA). The passes permit an inmate to attend a program or to perform community work outside prison — with an escort — for a few hours before returning to a cell the same day.

Emanuel Jaques

Betesh — who has been eligible for parole since 2009 — was convicted of the vicious July 1977 rape and murder of 12-year-old Jaques, which propelled Toronto to clean up a seedy section of Yonge St. overrun with bodyrub parlours and strip clubs.

Jaques was working as a shoeshine boy at the corner of Yonge and Dundas Sts. to save money to buy dog food for the new puppy promised him by a neighbour in Regent Park.

Betesh worked as a steel rigger on the CN Tower by day and as a gay S&M prostitute by night.

He and his best friend, Robert “Stretcher” Kribs, a bouncer at a massage parlour, had lured children to Kribs’ apartment with promises of cash, bikes and kites so the pedophiles could molest their prey.